Deal with UK to avoid Brexit not likely this year

David Cameron will get a chance to outline his plans for reforming the U.K.’s relationship with the EU at a summit of national leaders in December, but the chances of securing a deal by the end of the year appear slim.

Cameron met with Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, after Sunday’s EU-Turkey summit in Brussels to gauge the progress the British prime minister has made in trying to get fellow EU leaders onside with his demands, and to see if the issue will make it on to the summit agenda for December 17-18.

The two men agreed that the British government has made “good progress” but an EU official said it will be difficult to reach a deal in December.

“While some areas are more difficult than others, discussions are ongoing with member states to find solutions and agree reforms in all four areas outlined in the prime minister’s letter to the European Council president,” a spokesperson for No. 10 Downing Street said.

Cameron will use the climate change talks in Paris to further press his reform plans ahead of “a substantive discussion of the U.K. renegotiation at next month’s European Council.”

Cameron sent a letter to Tusk on November 10, the same day that he outlined what he wants from the EU, describing the In/Out referendum scheduled to take place by 2017 as “the most important decision that British people will make at the ballot box in our lifetime.”

The prime minister said he has not embarked on a “mission impossible.” He said he wants to stay in the EU, but did not rule out leaving if he cannot secure the changes that he seeks.

The negotiations will focus on four areas:

Protecting the single market for non-eurozone countries.

Boosting competitiveness.

Allowing Britain to opt out of the EU’s ambition to forge an “ever closer union” and strengthening the role of national parliaments.

Restricting access to benefits, for EU migrants both in and out of work.

The last point looks to be the biggest hurdle for Cameron to overcome. The Conservative Party says that migrants should live in the U.K. for four years before being able to claim state benefits. “That looks very like discrimination [to some people], so poses very serious problems under single market rules,” Jonathan Faull, the British official leading the discussions for the EU, said.

“It is hoped that if it’s not possible to reach final decisions in December then the couple of months between then and February will be used to resolve outstanding differences,” Faull told the Irish parliament on November 25.